Spray Painting Equipment Basics

Whether you’re renovating your home or simply giving it a facelift with a fresh coat of paint, you want to get the best out of your handiwork and you won’t want to spend all day doing just one room. There are plenty of ways to save time, and when it comes to painting walls the best solution is to just spray paint it, rather than restoring to a brush or a roller.

There’s always the option of calling in a professional to do it, which would make your life easier, but when you’re strapped tight on a budget, sometimes you just have to do it yourself.

Here are a few pointers to help you get on the right track.

Equipment Preparation

The very first thing you’ll need is your weapon of choice, the spray painting gun. The recommended type of spray gun is an airless one, which you can easily find and hire for a pretty reasonable price. If you’re not used to handling a spray gun, it’s a good idea to ask for a basic demonstration before you try using it at home.

Now that you have your weapon at the ready, you’ll need some ammunition. Paint can be found at any hardware store, but the important thing is that you get the right kind of paint. There is no such thing as going too far to get the right shade of that particular colour you like. After all, you’ll have to live with it.

Finally, you’ll need protective gear. All you need are some overalls, or a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of pants, coupled with an old pair of shoes and a hat to protect your hair. The most important parts are the goggles to protect your eyes from harm and a respirator to protect you from breathing in any fine droplets of paint

Environmental Preparation

Next on the list is to start preparing the surfaces you will be spray painting. This is one of the more laborious, but important, parts of the job as you will have to clean and prepare the inside walls so that nothing interferes with the paint job. You can clean the walls using plain, everyday soap or a similar solution and you will need to repair and fill any dents, holes or cracks you might find.

When it comes to the outside walls, it’s easier and better to simply have them pressure washed.

Once the surfaces are cleaned, leave them to dry before moving on.

Once that’s done, be sure to protect any exposed surface with either newspapers or gladwrap, or by using drop sheets. When working outside, don’t underestimate how far those paint droplets can fly and be sure to cover nearby surfaces, plants and other things well.

The Painting Process

To get started, find a corner and work your way down from the top. Though you may not be using a brush, the methodology is the same, so you should be using smooth and steady strokes of paint, while making sure they’re short. The majority of the pressure will centre on the middle, so make sure that you overlap each spray of paint by at least a third.

At first you will want to make a few lighter coats of paint rather than one single heavy application, which can cause a myriad of problems like splotches and runs. The best way to make sure this doesn’t happen is to watch how you hold the gun, which is roughly 12 or so inches away from the wall. Make sure you stay at the equal distance for the entire time, otherwise if you go too close you’ll end up applying it too heavily, too far and you’ll only get a few dots on the wall and too many on the floor.

The rules are simple, as long as you stick to it.

If you’re looking for more information on Spray Painting, where you can hire the equipment, and anything else to help your renovation projection, find plenty of additional information on AussieWeb.com.au.